


Balcony

by ThisOldThing



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: Angst, F/F, One Shot, canon adjacent, post-reveal, quick writing challenge
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-15
Updated: 2019-02-15
Packaged: 2019-10-29 03:29:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,610
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17800259
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ThisOldThing/pseuds/ThisOldThing
Summary: Kara is injured and asks an angry Lena for help.





	Balcony

Kara landed heavily and gracelessly on the platform, her shoulders slumping as she dropped to a knee. She placed her hands flat on the concrete to keep from falling on her face, heaving in deep breaths as she tried to recover from the effort of flight. “Lena,” she called and she waited, her breath slowly returning to normal. Kara heard the sliding glass door open but didn’t hear steps outside. She looked up and saw Lena standing just inside of her apartment staring at her with anger.

“Get off my balcony.”

“Lena–”

“I said leave,” Lena ground out, her gaze steely.

“I need your help,” Kara said softly. She pressed her lips together and waited. She knew how she looked. She could feel the blood mixing with the sweat on her forehead, could feel her wounds throbbing where her skin was split open, where her normally indestructable body was bruised.

“No.”

“Lena, please,” Kara said and she struggled to stand. Lena made no motion forward to help her in the way she almost certainly would have months before, when she didn’t know that her best friend, Kara Danvers, and Supergirl were one in the same. 

Lena smiled, her lips twisting cruely as Kara attempted to pull herself to her full height. “Go to Alex.”

“I can’t.”

“Why?” Lena challenged as she crossed her arms over her chest, suddenly aware that she was arguing in her pajamas.

“Because she doesn’t know,” Kara said and Lena’s brow fell, the news confusing. Kara opened her mouth and then closed it again. “She doesn’t…” Kara exhaled and a heavy beat of silence sat between them. “J’onn wiped her memory so she couldn’t accidentally disclose my identity to the DEO.” Kara fought the urge to flinch when she met Lena’s eye.

Lena worked her jaw. It was a sacrifice she could see Alex making, calculated and rational, and her heart squeezed tightly as she remembered how it felt to not know Kara was Supergirl. She stared at Kara and saw how heavy a burden it must be for Kara to not have Alex know. Lena cleared her throat. “This is not my problem.”

“No, it’s not,” Kara agreed. “But, please. Help me.”

“I see.” Lena once again smiled. “You’ve come to me because you have no place else to go.”

“I came to you because I trust you.”

“You trust me,” Lena said, her brow arched. “That’s rich.”

“I could have gone to James.” Lena scoffed and Kara took a tentative step forward. “I know things haven’t been good between you since you broke up, but you know I could have gone to him. I could have gone to J’onn, or Brainy–”

“Then go to them,” Lena said sharply. “I don’t have time for this.”

“Of course you do,” Kara said and Lena frowned. “It’s Saturday night. You just finished your glass of wine and two chapters of whatever you’re reading and you’re about to go to bed.”

“Don’t act like you know me.”

“But I do,” Kara said plainly. They stood opposite each other for a beat before Kara swayed and clumbsily stepped to the side, her right arm bracing her as she slumped into the glass wall.

“Can you even fly?” Lena asked.

“I got here,” Kara said with a smile that was marred by the red streaks of blood running down her face.

Lena worked her jaw again. She tilted her chin up, and through a tight exhale said, “I can’t do anything to help you until you clean up.”

Kara nodded. 

“Can you make it to the guest bathroom?”

“Yeah,” Kara said. She cleared her throat and nodded. “Yes.”

Lena didn’t wait to see. She turned and headed for the panic room attached to her master bedroom where she kept a fully-stocked medical kit worthy of a mobile urban clinic. She was going through the supplies when she heard the bump, heard the crash and the low curse in a language she didn’t recognize. “Sorry,” she heard called from the other room and the sound made her shoulders tighten, her heart thump against her ribs. It had been two and a half months since she’d last spoken to Kara. Lena found what she needed and then, arms full, headed back to the living room.

She made it halfway down the hallway before her steps slowed to a stop as she heard the shower going. The guest bathroom door was ajar, and she could see in the reflection in the mirror that Kara was standing in the stall still wearing her suit, the water plastering her hair to her face. Lena exhaled, annoyed, and pushed the door open with her forearm. “What are you doing?”

Kara jumped at Lena’s voice and then winced, her hands bracing against the wall as the water beat against her torso. “I. I couldn’t get my suit off,” Kara said. “I think there’s something wrong with my arm.”

Lena’s eyes immediately focused on Kara’s arms, and how one hung lower from her shoulder socket than the other. “You’ve dislocated your left arm.”

“Oh,” Kara said. “So that’s what that blinding pain is,” she said, trying to joke. 

Lena exhaled and put the items in her arms on the vanity, a few things falling into the sink and clanging around before coming to a stop. She moved to the shower and opened the door, the spray bouncing off of Kara and hitting her in errant misty spray. Lena reached up and pushed on the shower head until it was angled toward the wall. The deflected spray left the both of them partially enveloped in steam. “Turn around,” Lena said and Kara immediately obeyed. Lena pushed Kara’s cape to the side and located the zipper on her back. She paused, and then pulled the zipper down, unhooking the cape from the shoulders once she was done. 

“Lena–”

“Be quiet,” Lena said, her hands moving quickly to push the sodden, fitted suit from Kara’s body. Her back emerged first, followed by her shoulders and arms, Lena careful to pull the fabric down her left arm slowly. 

“I can do the rest,” Kara said softly but Lena didn’t wait, instead placing her hands on either sides of Kara’s hips and pulling the fabric down. She heard Kara suck in her breath as the skin of her lower body was revealed inch-by-inch, and Lean’s jaw was clenched so tight she was sure there would be teeth marks on her tongue. Once Kara had stepped out of her second boot, she righted herself and Lena exhaled shakily as she tossed the wet suit and boots to the corner. She stepped fully into the stall, Kara looking at her wide-eyed over her shoulder, and Lena reached past Kara, her front pressing into Kara’s back briefly as Lena’s hands found the bottle of soap in the shower cutout.

Lena stepped back, creating space between them. “Hold still, this might sting.” She squirted some of the soap onto her palm and then rubbed her hands together. Once her fingers were soapy, she took a sharp breath and placed them on Kara’s back, beginning to briskly and gently clean away the blood and grime that seemed to cover such a large part of Kara’s body. 

Kara’s body was rock solid and tense. And soft. Lena tried not to notice how soft Kara’s skin was. Lena worked her way down, skipping Kara’s rear end as she made her way to her ankles, Lena’s eyes never looking up from the floor. “I can do the rest,” Kara said, her voice meek and Lena scoffed as she stood and reached around Kara’s body to gently scrub at her stomach. Kara tensed, and Lena licked at her lips.

“Can you? I’d bet most of my L-Corp stock that if you tried you’d fall.”

“That might be accurate,” Kara said quietly. “Lena–”

“I don’t want to talk.”

Lena caught Kara nod her head out of the corner of her eye. The way she acquiesced so quickly, so absolutely, tugged at the small part of Lena’s heart that remembered what it was to be in love with her best friend. The part that she’d buried under a metric ton of bitterness and hurt when she’d accidentally discovered National CIty’s superhero, her best friend Kara, had been lying to her. 

She soaped up Kara’s shoulders and her arms, her front occasionally brushing against Kara’s back. After she was satisfied she had done all she could in their current positions, Lena said, “Turn around.”

Kara balked, and then slowly turned, swaying slightly as she did, a hand moving between her legs to cover herself. Lena kept her face an impassive mask, her eyes focusing on Kara’s face. Her eyes avoiding the trust in Kara’s gaze. Lena was shocked by the amount of filth covering Kara’s skin as her fingers soaped up Kara’s cheeks. “What did you fight, an alien pig?”

Kara snorted a laugh and immediately winced in pain, regret knotting her brow. “Ow. No, but it was an alien.”

Lena harumphed, her hands gently cleaning the wounds on Kara’s face. “How did this alien hurt a Kryptonian,” she muttered and Kara frowned. 

“It had an alien weapon. And, a building fell on me.”

Lena’s eyebrows shot to her hairline. “Well, that would explain the dust.” She reached to the side and grabbed another bottle, squirting the liquid into her palm. “Hold still,” she instructed and Kara complied, Lena’s fingers working her hair into a lather.

“Thank you,” Kara said quietly. Lena gently turned her toward the showerhead and then stepped out of the stall, her hand reaching back in to direct the spray of water toward Kara. Lena’s eyes dropped to the stall floor and watched as the dirt and blood ran with the water into the drain. She shivered, telling herself it was from the water soaking through her clothes and not from the evidence of Kara being injured.

Lena gingerly picked up the supplies that had fallen into the sink and placed them on the counter, then rinsed the soap, blood and dirt from her hands. She then turned and grabbed a towel from the open linen cabinet at her side. She took the plush white towel and wiped the water from her skin. Her face and arms were splattered with water, her pajama shirt and pants soaked through at her breasts and hips from where she had brushed against Kara. She pressed the towel into her clothes, doing no good and she exhaled. “Are you finished?”

“I think so.” Lena turned around and shut off the water, the silence puncuated by a few drops from the shower faucet hitting the tile floor. Lena reached into the linen closet again and grabbed a large bath towel. She dropped her wet towel on the ground and stepped forward to towel off Kara when her gentle voice stopped her. “I can dry off.”

Lena looked up and Kara was looking at her with affection and gratitude. 

Lena swallowed hard. “You’ll pass out.”

“I won’t,” Kara said, her hands closing over the towel and gently tugging it toward her body. Lena could only nod. She scooped the wet towel from the floor and exited the bathroom, walking briskly to her bedroom. She dropped the damp towel into her hamper, then her clothes. She reached into her dresser with a slightly trembling hand and pulled out sweats and a t-shirt. She dressed quickly and then hesistated for a moment before grabbing another pair of sweats and a worn t-shirt from college. She walked back to the guest bathroom and Kara quickly covered up with the towel, the cuts on her face jagged and red. 

“Here,” Lena said, placing the clothes on the counter. “Do you need help?”

“With the shirt,” Kara said. “Please.”

Lena nodded and grabbed the shirt, then stepped forward. Kara dropped the towel and Lena pulled the material over Kara’s head, pulling her wet hair free and then reaching for her arms, one by one, and slipping them into the shirt. She tried not to notice that Kara’s breasts were fuller than she’d expected them to be, Kara’s nipples darker than she thought given Kara’s fair skin. Lena tried not to noticed that as she pulled the hem of the shirt down to Kara’s hips that her eyes caught the small triangle of hair between her legs. 

Lena abruptly stepped back, her throat clearing as she turned to the vanity. She grabbed the items from her medical kit into her arms and spoke as she exited. “Meet me in the living room when you’re dressed.”

She didn’t hear Kara’s answer, the rush of blood coloring Lena’s cheeks no doubt creating the roar in her ears as well. She went about arranging the medical items on her coffee table, only turning when Kara gently shuffled into the room. The sweats were baggy on her, the shirt drapping oddly on Kara’s muscular frame. Lena once again felt her heart squeeze and the thought came to her how stupid Kara was for not trusting her with the truth when she had the chance. When they had a chance before Lena’s heart became so badly bruised. “Sit on the couch,” Lena said. Kara obeyed, and Lena went about patching her up, tsking at the number of wounds, sighing as she placed the bandages against Kara’s skin. When Lena popped her shoulder back into place with a sickening crack, Kara cried out, and it took all of Lena’s will power not to place a soothing hand on her back and rub comforting circles between her shoulder blades. Kara leaned back into the couch cushions, a light sheen of sweat on her brow, and Lena tried to pretend that seeing Kara weak, seeing her vulnerable, wasn’t doing things to her heart. 

“How long will it take you to recover?” Lena finally asked, stacking the empty bandage wrappers in a neat pile on her coffee table.

“Probably a couple of days,” Kara said. She hesitated. “When I used to work with the DEO I had a sunbed that would speed things up.”

“A sunbed,” Lena murmured and she saw Kara nod.

“The light of the yellow sun will heal me.”

Lena laughed lightly. “Well then it might take more than a couple of days.” Kara frowned. “The forecast says rain.”

“Right,” Kara said with a smile. “I forgot that you like to watch the evening news when you come home from work.” Lena’s lips pulled into a tight line and Kara’s face fell. “Lena–”

“I’ll call James.”

“I don’t want– I didn’t go to James, I came to you,” Kara said, frustrated and she watched as Lena’s face morphed into almost tortured disbelief.

“You are not staying here.”

“I made a mistake,” Kara said and Lena averted her gaze. “I made a mistake and I don’t know how to make you believe that I am sorry.”

“Oh I believe that you’re sorry,” Lena said, her gaze back on Kara, all razors and pain. “But I just don’t give a damn.”

“Yes you do,” Kara countered and Lena scoffed. She turned and resumed organzing her supplies. 

“Lena.” Kara stood and then swayed. Lena turned back quickly and held a hand out to catch her if she fell, and both woman looked to the offered limb at the same time: Kara in wonder, Lena in shock. Lena snatched her hand back as if burned and Kara’s lips thinned. “I didn’t tell you at first because the people I loved told me not to trust you. But I did, trust you, more than I should have given your last name and anti-alien device.” Lena shook her head, a wry smile on her lips. “And then I was afraid, that you knowing would get you hurt, that your mother would use it against you.”

Lena’s brow furrowed. “She knew–”

“But I didn’t know that for the longest time.” 

“And after you knew?”

“I was selfish.”

Lena’s lips twisted and she picked up a bottle of hydrogen peroxide. “You know, it doesn’t matter how many times you say this–”

“I was in love with you, Lena, and I didn’t want you to hate me.” The words are blurted out with such force that when the sound stops it take a beat for both women to remember to breathe. Once Kara did, she spoke again, her voice soft as she admitted the one thing that she had kept from Lena since Lena found out the truth about her identity. “I am in love with you, Lena, and I don’t know what to do now that you hate me.”

Lena swallowed hard, her hands white knuckling the bottle in her hands. She didn’t speak, the color in her cheeks red, her eyes shimmering. 

Kara held her palms open at her side. “You don’t have to love me.” She could see Lena’s grasp on the bottle tighten, heard her breath hitch. “But, please. Don’t hate me.”

Far below, filtering through the open balcony door, was a siren. Lena could hear it echo off of the tall buildings that made up her neighborhood and she wondered, if Kara wasn’t hurt, if she’d fly off to help. Lena shuddered out a breath, her fingers loosening a tick, her eyes blinking back into focus. She cleared her voice. “You can stay one night.” She saw Kara’s body start to relax, her intention to step forward and speak cut of off only when Lena continued to speak. “You can take the first room on the right.” Lena put the bottle down on the coffee table and turned, her steps urgent as she left Kara behind. 

Lena shut the door to her bedroom quietly, the knob held delicately in her fingers as she twisted it closed, and she climbed into her bed without changing into the soft pajamas she prefered. She rolled onto her back, her hearing stretched to hear Kara gently shuffling into the guest room down the hall.

********************************

The mattress sank behind her and Kara held her breath. She didn’t pretend to be asleep—Lena didn’t deserve any more deception from her. Instead she laid there still, her hands stacked between her cheek and the pillow, her body slightly bent at her hips and her knees. She felt Lena take a breath, and then tentatively move closer, her hands searching out first and finding her side. Once she did, Lena’s motions became more confident, and she slipped her arms around Kara’s waist, her body pressing fully against her back. Lena molded against her, her breath shuddering against her neck and Kara shivered. They were quiet for a long moment, their breaths coming out even, both trying hard to calm their fast beating hearts.

“You scared me to death tonight.”

Kara swallowed hard and nodded her head, her cheek awkwardly rubbing against her hand. “I’m sorry.”

Lena rested her forehead against Kara’s neck and exhaled, the warmth causing Kara’s skin to raise in goosebumps. Lena’s arms gently squeezed Kara’s middle, her wrists barely bumping against the underside of Kara’s breasts, and Kara brought her hands from beneath her cheek to rest them over Lena’s forearms. 

“I’m so sorry, Lena.”

She could feel Lena shake her head, rocking it from side to side. “Shhh…” Lena breathed out. She placed a gentle kiss against Kara’s spine. “Shhh…”

Kara waited, thinking that Lena would say more, kiss her again, or even pull away and leave without another word… But instead Lena just held her, solid and sure behind her, her even breaths tickling the hair on the back of Kara’s neck. After the longest time, Kara moved to pull away and Lena’s arms tightened, reflexively. “I’m just rolling over,” Kara said and she felt Lena stiffen. “Is that ok?” 

Lena didn’t speak, but Kara could feel her nod, the pillowcase fabric rustling beneath her head. Lena loosed her grip, leaned back slightly, and Kara awkwardly turned until they were facing each other in the dark. “Lena–”

The kiss was sudden, gentle in the darkness and Kara’s eyes fluttered closed as Lena pressed into her, warm and soft. Lena’s arm gently cupped Kara’s shoulder, and then slipped up to her neck and into her hair, their kiss turning deep and slow. Kara reached forward and placed her free hand on Lena’s side, to brace herself more than anything else. She wasn’t sure what Lena wanted from her, so she gave her lips willingly, held her own desires in check to follow Lena’s lead. After a long while Lena pulled back and Kara opened her eyes. She didn’t know what she was expecting to see, but it wasn’t Lena staring at her like she was worried she was making a mistake.

“How long has Alex not known?”

It wasn’t the question Kara was expecting. She swallowed hard. “Two months.” 

Lena hummed. She was silent for a long moment. “I’m sorry.”

Kara didn’t speak. She couldn’t speak, the topic too overwhelming for her to put words to.

Lena reached up and pushed a bit of hair behind Kara’s ear, her eyes searching her features in the dark. “I don’t know if this changes anything. Between us.”

“Ok,” Kara said. It felt like the only thing she could say, though it wasn’t what she wanted to say. She swallowed hard and watched as Lena’s eyes dropped to her lips and then back to her eyes. 

“Do you want me to stay?”

“Yes,” Kara replied.

Lena nodded and held her arms open, and Kara folded into her. Lena held her gently, mindful of her battered body, and they fell asleep together, uncertain of what waited for them in the morning.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading!


End file.
